ELECTION 2014: Story details Dems' efforts in CA-31

If you want an idea how important the 31st Congressional District is to Democrats, check out this Politico story.

Entitled “How Dems Plotted to Avoid CA-31 Disaster,” the story by Alex Isenstadt offers a behind-the-scenes looks at how Democrats sought to prevent a repeat of 2012, when Democrats running for the San Bernardino County seat split the vote, shutting out their party and allowing two Republicans to run for the seat in November.

You need a subscription to Politico Pro to read the story. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee emailed a copy to the masses.

Among the excerpts:

Last Monday, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) attended a fundraiser in Boston with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and first lady Michelle Obama. At one point, Israel pulled Pelosi aside and gave her some bad news: Democrats might get shut out again.

“Even when I spoke with her I couldn’t give a guarantee,” Israel recalled in an interview. “Obviously, it would have been a disappointment.”

And:

For Democrats, getting Aguilar over the top took two years of intense behind-the-scenes planning. It all began the night of the 2012 primary, when Aguilar was locked out of the top two. Israel, working with his aides, developed a multi-part blueprint aimed at avoiding a repeat disaster.

Pete Aguilar

The first part of the blueprint was to consolidate establishment support for Aguilar, which would discourage other Democrats from getting into the race. Shortly after launching his second campaign for the seat in May 2013, Aguilar received endorsements from party higher-ups such as Israel, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The plan, however, ran into problems when Eloise Gomez Reyes, an attorney, jumped into the race with the endorsement of EMILY’s List, the influential D.C.-based group that gets behind female candidates who support abortion rights. Some strategists who were aligned with the DCCC began to worry that Reyes’s entry would put the party on the path of a 2012-repeat scenario.

The second part of the blueprint centered on making sure that Democrats such as Gomez Reyes and Baca didn’t siphon too much support from Aguilar, which would make it more likely that two Republicans would advance to the general election.

In early May, a few weeks before the primary, DCCC officials got a scare when a pro-Baca super PAC popped up and spent thousands of dollars on his behalf. With Baca’s poll numbers on the rise, the DCCC released a public memo warning that Democrats could, once again, be shut out.

The memo also said that, according to polling, Baca was the “most vulnerable to negative attack” — a signal to liberal outside groups to begin pelting him. Two weeks after the memo was released, the League of Conservation Voters began sending out mailers assailing Baca for his environmental record.”

Aguilar currently holds second place, which would pit him against Republican Paul Chabot in the fall. However, third-place candidate and Republican Lesli Gooch has yet to concede and it’s possible she could ask for a recount.

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